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Some authors have an insidious effect on the reader – the reader’s thinking patterns change, at least for a while. Here is a very short story. the author has been clearly dazed by The Alchemist. Or maybe Jack Welch.

“Nothing in the world is ever completely wrong. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.” – Paulo Coelho (Brida)

“People never learn anything by being told, they have to find out for themselves.”-Paulo Coelho (Veronika Decides to Die)“My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too.”- Jack Welch

Cats, Dogs, and Bacteria

A software engineer working in a product company was chatting with his son on what the son wants to do after growing up.
“If you are a cat, you can become a consultant. If you are a dog, you can work in a services company.”
Son: “but I want to be like you Daddy, and work in a product company.”
Engineer: “Oh, to work in a product company, you must be a bacterium.”
The engineers wife, listening to this conversation, was getting annoyed.
“What nonsense are you putting into his head now?”
Engineer: “I attended a talk by a great man who told us that we were bacteria. And it must be true, because all the engineers laughed and clapped and greatly appreciated the point.”
Wife: “And who is this great man?”
engineer: He calls himself a gardener.”
“Huh, a gardener.” said his wife. “What do you think a gardener thinks about all day long? He is naturally concerned with small animals, insects, and soil bacteria– what else would one expect from a gardener?”
She paused, and then said thoughtfully, “In fact, I believe he paid you a compliment — he didn’t say you were manure. My grandfather was a gardener you know, and he used to talk manure all the time.” she said, and walked away.
Strangely, the engineer’s heart no longer felt heavy. He was cheerful again.
He went out to play cricket with his son.
“Don’t worry about what you will do when you grow up, son, even if you turn out to be a monkey there will be jobs in several cities for you.”
“Which cities, daddy?”
“Pune and Chennai, most certainly”, said the engineer, “just tell them that monkeys are naturally good at climbing trees.”
“Now mind the ball” he warned, as he bowled a good length to his son.
The son was clean bowled on the first ball.
— by E. Vexedococcus